Literary notes about RAPT (AI summary)
In literature, “rapt” is employed to convey a state of profound absorption or intense focus, often highlighting moments of wonder, contemplation, or adoration. Authors use the term to depict characters whose eyes or faces betray their complete immersion in what they are witnessing—a gaze full of entranced delight as seen in quiet observations [1, 2, 3]. It also captures an inner emotional or spiritual ecstasy, whether in the awe of nature’s beauty or during moments of divine worship and heroic reverie [4, 5, 6]. Moreover, “rapt” can suggest an almost mystical transport, as when a character is so deeply engaged with a subject that the world around them seems to vanish, leaving only a state of hushed, contemplative silence [7, 8, 9].
- Her rapt eyes were still on the dancing flecks of color from the prism pendants swaying in the sunlit window.
— from Pollyanna by Eleanor H. Porter - The white and green light strained through apple trees and clustering vines outside fell over the rapt little figure with a half-unearthly radiance.
— from Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery - Both gazed out of the windows with rapt faces.
— from The Enchanted April by Elizabeth Von Arnim - What would his wonder be, his rapt astonishment at the sight we daily witness with indifference!
— from On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and the Heroic in History by Thomas Carlyle - When Saint Vaśishṭha, rapt with joy, Assigned a name to every boy.
— from The Rámáyan of Válmíki, translated into English verse by Valmiki - In the love of larger truth, Rapt in the expectation of the birth Of a new Beauty, Sprung from Brotherhood and Wisdom.
— from Spoon River Anthology by Edgar Lee Masters - He was dismayed at this unseemly sound, and to cover it assumed an expression of rapt attention.
— from Project Gutenberg Compilation of Short Stories by Chekhov by Anton Pavlovich Chekhov - He leant his two elbows on his knees, and his chin on his hands and remained rapt in dumb meditation.
— from Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë - I am rapt, and cannot cover The monstrous bulk of this ingratitude With any size of words.
— from The Complete Works of William Shakespeare by William Shakespeare
